Stan announces new originals, licensing deals

AUSTRALIAN streaming service Stan has made a raft of announcements including two new original series.

Stan also confirmed it had signed two output deals with American studios MGM and Lionsgate.

The first of the new original series it has commissioned is Bloom, a six-part supernatural drama set in a country town one year after horrific floods killed five people in the community. When a mystery plant with the power to restore youth is found, the townspeople start to re-evaluate everything they believed.

Bloom is created by Glen Dolman (High Life) and will start production in August with John Curran (Chappaquiddick, Tracks) set to direct in his first TV project. The Sony co-production is expected to premiere this summer.

Stan has also greenlit The Gloaming, a new series from The Kettering Incident’s Victoria Madden, produced in conjunction with Disney’s ABC Studios.

The show follows a Tasmanian cop named Molly who’s leading the investigation into the murder of an unidentified woman that is linked to a 20-year-old cold case. Set in Hobart, the series will take advantage of the ghostly Tassie wilderness as the routine case turns into something more sinister.

On a roll, Stan has also commissioned a Christmas special for No Activity, the Patrick Brammall comedy series that follows two police officers on mundane stake-outs. No surprise, but this one takes place during the festive season with a disgruntled Santa taking a group of shoppers hostage.

No Activity was Stan’s first original series and it has gone on to be remade for American audiences by Will Ferrell with Brammall reprising his role.

The streaming service also confirmed it has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Lionsgate which will see Stan pick up TV shows from American cable channel Starz. This already includes Sweetbitter and Vida but will see the upcoming John Wick TV spin-off, The Continental, stream exclusively on the platform.

The deal also includes The Rook, a supernatural thriller starring Olivia Munn and Joely Richardson, British black comedy Damned, 10 Days in the Valley starring Kyra Sedgwick and four seasons of Elizabeth Hurley-starrer The Royals.

Stan’s deal with MGM will net the streamer the Get Shorty TV series and The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, Patrick Dempsey’s return to episodic television. The series is a murder mystery based on a best-selling novel by Joel Dicker.

Stan will also house all 24 James Bond movies that are part of the “official canon”, including Skyfall, Dr No and From Russia with Love.

The company said it has hit one million active subscribers. Stan rival Netflix won’t release Australian subscriber data but Roy Morgan estimates put it close to three million in March 2017.

Share your TV and movies obsessions with @wenleima on Twitter.

Let's block ads! (Why?)